Since she was elected as the candidate, securing the delegates who once backed Biden, Harris’ popularity and approval ratings have risen by double digits, from the mid-30s to over 40.
The Democrats tried to build on this with their party convention platform. On Thursday evening, veterans, victims of gun violence and police officers were present, promising that Harris would be tough on crime and foreign adversaries. A Michigan sheriff thanked the Biden-Harris administration for more police resources; a group of Democratic veterans promised that Harris would continue to take care of them.
“I want to tell my Republican colleagues a secret: Democrats are as patriotic as we are,” said former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican who resigned from the House after voting to impeach Trump in 2021 and served on the Jan. 6 select committee. “How can a party claim to be patriotic when it would elect a man who would overturn a free and fair election?”
Harris’ team rebuffed a group of undecided delegates elected to protest the Biden administration’s military support of Israel who had staged a sit-in outside the United Center. They demanded for days that a Palestinian American be given time on stage to share the potential speech with reporters – a support for Harris after she condemned the way Israel had waged its war.
Instead, Harris herself devoted a significant portion of her speech to the war. She did not take the protesters’ position, but spoke more about the plight of the Palestinians than any other candidate in a speech on that stage. She emphasized her own support for Ukraine’s war against Russia, while protesters outside the DNC grounds – loudly but less than organizers had hoped – accused Democrats of enabling mass murder around the world.
Like Trump’s other two opponents, Biden and Hillary Clinton, Harris accused him of self-interest and weakness; Trump’s party had used its convention to describe his four years as a time of peace and strength. But Harris addressed an issue that didn’t even exist in 2020: the end of national abortion protections under Roe v. Wade.
“Donald Trump personally selected members of the Supreme Court to take away women’s reproductive freedom,” Harris said. “You have to ask yourself why exactly they don’t trust women? We trust women,” and promised to enshrine abortion protection in law.
